What is a stretch assignment and what does it really mean? Put very simply, a stretch assignment could be seen as taking a risk… taking a chance to fill a chair long before you are really ready and equipped to do so. Is it a risk worth taking? Absolutely! And do you have to fear failure or think you will have to perform at that level all on your own? Absolutely not!
In career management, a stretch assignment can be the experience that gives you the opportunity to underscore your pinnacles and readily identify your foothills. It is the fastest way to realizing your passion, strengths, tolerance for stress and ambiguity and very importantly, areas for development. It helps you to create greater self-awareness.
Career development usually follows a track – moving from one level to the next upwardly or laterally. Most often, we tend to move up and on few occasion take a lateral move to gain broader knowledge in another area. Either way, learning is to be had once we are exposed to new and more challenging tasks. Or sometimes, just simply working under or with different leadership and mindset generates new thought processes of our own.
Recently, I survived an acquisition and had two offers – both of which were stretch assignments for me. One involved relocation while the other kept me where I wanted to be. It was a tough decision but I settled for the position that did not necessitate a move. So, my challenge was not only taking on an assignment beyond my current experience but it was also managing through shades of grey, adapting to new management, learning the processes and culture of the new company and getting up to speed with the new business area on a global scale. In a global operations role, I realized that I didn’t necessarily have to know everything but I needed to build strong networks, create great working relationships and be able to leverage people, processes and time to deliver against very demanding deadlines and to gather data I needed. And through all of this I would build new global business knowledge, critical analytical and leadership skills. While I had some exposure to operations, this was at a much higher level and the supporting organizational structure was not like I was accustomed to having – for example, dedicated HR and finance business partners. This time it was more of a shared services model and therefore operations had to do much more.
It has been a year since and as I reflect back on my pinnacles and foothills, I have no regrets. In fact, if there is any fast way to develop professionally, it is through a stretch assignment. Today, I can clearly see who I am, what I love to do, the kind of leadership I like supporting and the important factors or values in a job, such as autonomy, flexible work arrangements, creativity and the opportunity to innovate even if it means failing because failure is an important step in our learning process. As we say within the organization, a winning culture allows room for innovation and tolerance for failure in the discovery process because it is from failure that we also learn. Understanding why and where one failed leads to more innovation. Telling someone there is no tolerance for failure is like telling a scientist that every compound must produce a success.
Innovative medicines are a result of many experiments involving failures and disappointments but using new knowledge from the process to keep the experiments going until success is achieved.
As we all progress up the career ladder, we are constant experimenters. We will have those pinnacle moments that set us apart and make us to feel great and we will also have set backs in the foothills. But that is part of the growth process, the discovery that will produce professional growth and greater self-awareness – giving us sense of how far up we want to aim and help us to become more agile learners. And, agile learners have great success ahead of them!
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